Nigel Farage tells right-wing US event that ‘religious sectarianism’ is new threat in UK

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Former Brexit Party chief Nigel Farage appeared to overlook a big a part of British historical past on Wednesday when he advised a gathering of American conservatives that “religious sectarianism” was a new downside in British politics.

Speaking at an “international summit” held on the eve of the 2024 Conservative Political Action Conference alongside former British Prime Minister Liz Truss and different right-wing worldwide figures, Mr Farage advised attendees that Western nations are dealing with now a “huge internal problem” that he described as a “new phenomenon”.

That phenomenon, which he stated was “beginning to dominate British politics,” was “religious sectarianism”.

Mr Farage was referring to the pro-Palestinian voices protesting outdoors the House of Commons as Parliament debated the Israel-Gaza warfare, and he complained about “religious hatred” that “exists against Israel, against the Jewish people” and blamed “successive labour and conservative governments” for having “pursued completely irresponsible immigration policies” and never encouraging integration by Muslim immigrants.

“Now we have radical Islam is becoming mainstream in British politics. We will have by the 2029 general election, we will have a radical Islamic party represented in Westminster and this is why borders, you can’t be a proper country, unless you control your borders,” he stated. “The internal threats of religious divide and sectarianism, that happening to us first, but if you’re not very careful … all of us will face it”.

Mr Farage’s feedback about non secular sectarianism appeared to whitewash centuries of British historical past and pass over necessary moments such because the sixteenth century English Reformation, throughout which Henry VIII broke the Church of England away from the authority of the Catholic Church. The former Brexit Party chief and Ukip MEP additionally appeared to go away out of his evaluation the bloody English Civil War, the beheading of Charles I and the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, all pushed by causes together with sectarian disputes between Catholics and Protestants.

He additionally didn’t appear to rely in his evaluation the three a long time of The Troubles, throughout which Catholic Irish Republicans, Protestant Unionists and British troops fought a quasi-guerilla warfare over the standing of Northern Ireland which killed greater than 3,500 folks, the vast majority of whom have been civilians.

The a long time of violence solely got here to an finish with the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, which established a power-sharing devolved authorities in Belfast.

Asked if he needed to make clear his feedback, Mr Farage – who has appeared at rallies with Donald Trump – advised The Independent that he believed sectarianism was certainly a new phenomenon in Britain.

“We’ve had it in Northern Ireland, we have seen the baleful results of it, and it is now coming to England. I’ve by no means seen it in my lifetime,” he stated.